Feminist News

Witnesses Testify Against Salvi in Abortion Clinic Murder Trial

Two prosecution witnesses testified Thursday that they watched accused abortion-clinic gunman John Salvi engaged in target practice at extremely close range on the day before the December 1994 attacks on two Brookline, Mass. abortion clinics. Salvi's lawyers say that Salvi committed the shootings, which claimed the lives of two women and wounded five others, but that he was insane at the time.

Prosecutors showed jurors videotapes of Salvi demonstrating at two protests at the woman's clinic he later attacked, claiming the tapes reveal Salvi was a purposeful anti-abortion activist.

Another prosecution witness, David Fairbanks, testified last week that Salvi fired at him three times and missed. Fairbanks said that Salvi shouted at victim Lee Anne Nichols, "This is what you get! You should pray the rosary!" while shooting her ten consecutive times. Other prosecution witnesses present during the shootings testified. Salvi has been identified as the gunman by nearly a dozen witnesses.